Living Single Handedly
Bless me, LJ, for I have neglected thee. It's been three or maybe four days since last I posted. I am refining typing with one hand and a thumb to, if not a fine art, then at least to a fairly utilitarian skill. Beats the hell out of typing one-handed.
What have I been doing with my time? Well, let's see.
Science!: On Wednesday evening I had an entertaining and tasty dinner with irrationalrobot, wordknitter, miniBot, and Gnat. Afterwards, irrationalrobot, oldmangrumpus and I headed to the Theodor Jacobsen Observatory at the University of Washington to peer through its 118-year-old steampunk dream of a telescope and listen to a lecture about the Apollo space program. Sadly I have no photographs of the telescope (darn! Guess I'll just have to go back!). The thing is beautiful--large and slim and tapered, perfectly counterbalanced--with its clockwork counterweight system for tracking stars. I got to wind up the mechanism, which runs for 90 minutes at a time, and to view Saturn through its restored objective. What a wonderful experience! I'll have to plan a field trip back with folks when I'm at full operating capacity again to share.
Movie: jackwilliambell not only cooked me a wonderful steak dinner on Friday evening (with a mushroom, shallot, and pepper marinade to die for), but took me and his grandson R to see "How to Train Your Dragon" yesterday morning. The film was completely charming, extremely well-written, and featured some of the best character animation I've seen in a while. The story is your basic hero's journey, but it's done with both humor and compassion for its characters, and I was far more impressed with it than I expected to be. Lots of fun and really pretty fine storytelling.
Afterwards, we trolled through Daiso, where I purchased a little disply case that, upon returning home, I discovered to my dismay had a giant crack in it. We also made a stop at Costco, where I picked enough cat food, calcium, and light bulbs to last until Apocalypse.
In news of living single-handedly, I report that some paper plates can resist the onslaught of almost any food placed upon them. Plastic flatware isn't always as strong as one would hope. There are some things for which only ceramic dishware will do. Laundry is relatively easy to do one-handed; clipping cat claws is really, really not. Surprisingly, squeezing toothpaste from a tube is a pain in the butt with only one hand; tooth brushing is easy. And Spanky? Still too heavy to lift with one arm.
And now it's Sunday. I plan to do more freelance, shower, catch up on "Chuck" and "Doctor Who" and try to relax a bit.
In other news, irrationalrobot dreams of me in a funny and sadly accurate way. You'll be amused, really.
What have I been doing with my time? Well, let's see.
Science!: On Wednesday evening I had an entertaining and tasty dinner with irrationalrobot, wordknitter, miniBot, and Gnat. Afterwards, irrationalrobot, oldmangrumpus and I headed to the Theodor Jacobsen Observatory at the University of Washington to peer through its 118-year-old steampunk dream of a telescope and listen to a lecture about the Apollo space program. Sadly I have no photographs of the telescope (darn! Guess I'll just have to go back!). The thing is beautiful--large and slim and tapered, perfectly counterbalanced--with its clockwork counterweight system for tracking stars. I got to wind up the mechanism, which runs for 90 minutes at a time, and to view Saturn through its restored objective. What a wonderful experience! I'll have to plan a field trip back with folks when I'm at full operating capacity again to share.
Movie: jackwilliambell not only cooked me a wonderful steak dinner on Friday evening (with a mushroom, shallot, and pepper marinade to die for), but took me and his grandson R to see "How to Train Your Dragon" yesterday morning. The film was completely charming, extremely well-written, and featured some of the best character animation I've seen in a while. The story is your basic hero's journey, but it's done with both humor and compassion for its characters, and I was far more impressed with it than I expected to be. Lots of fun and really pretty fine storytelling.
Afterwards, we trolled through Daiso, where I purchased a little disply case that, upon returning home, I discovered to my dismay had a giant crack in it. We also made a stop at Costco, where I picked enough cat food, calcium, and light bulbs to last until Apocalypse.
In news of living single-handedly, I report that some paper plates can resist the onslaught of almost any food placed upon them. Plastic flatware isn't always as strong as one would hope. There are some things for which only ceramic dishware will do. Laundry is relatively easy to do one-handed; clipping cat claws is really, really not. Surprisingly, squeezing toothpaste from a tube is a pain in the butt with only one hand; tooth brushing is easy. And Spanky? Still too heavy to lift with one arm.
And now it's Sunday. I plan to do more freelance, shower, catch up on "Chuck" and "Doctor Who" and try to relax a bit.
In other news, irrationalrobot dreams of me in a funny and sadly accurate way. You'll be amused, really.